Surveying the acronyms, slogans and victim names that serve as titles for measures introduced in Congress and other legislative bodies, some of which may graduate to the U.S. Code and other statute books.

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‘The CORRECTIONS Act will help restore an important part of our criminal justice system, something that we’ve almost forgotten, and that is rehabilitation.’

Jul142015

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about the bipartisan CORRECTIONS Act, a bill he introduced earlier this year with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The CORRECTIONS Act would improve public safety, help end the cycle of incarceration for prisoners, and save taxpayer money by allowing lower-risk prisoners to participate in recidivism-reduction programs in exchange for earned-time credits.

Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s testimony are below.

“Right now, the federal government … spends billions of dollars incarcerating individuals while doing little or nothing to address the underlying cause, or to better prepare them for their eventual release into civil society. We can, and we must, do better.”

“We’ve always been tough on crime in Texas, but in 2007 the state leaders decided to get smart on crime. Instead of just building more prisons and hoping that would somehow fix the problem, they decided to try a different approach: scrapping construction plans and instead funding recidivism-reduction programs aimed at helping lower-risk offenders turn their lives around and become productive members of society.” ...